Two to five hours.

The document I've just assembled in PS has the inks AND the blue background together. It looks something like this. (The blue lines are much, much more obvious in the original-size document.)



Can you see the background lines from the sketch? I need these less than anything at this point. Here is how to take them away.

Go to Image -> Adjustment -> Channel Mixer..., and you'll see the following dialogue.



Choose Blue from the Output Channel drop-down and check the Monochrome box. As soon as you check it, only Gray will be available from the box, and lo! the blue lines vanish.

How the channel mixer works I can't even begin to guess.

There might still be debree present from other colors that snuck in. Also, -- depending on the quality of your scanner and printer -- the Channel Mixer might have trouble sorting away all the blue lines. I always go over the inks to clean them up with the paintbrush and eraser.

A note on the size of your comic: If you want to down-scale the strip now, before adding layers of background textures and texts, this is a good time. I wouldn't do it if I were you, though. Reason: If you ever publish your comic, it's advantageous to have a set of the finished strips at scan resolution. This gives far higher print quality.

The next step is adjustment of the Levels. I already adjusted the Levels once, here, to turn the gray sketch blue. This time I'll only need their services to optimize the quality of my inks. Hit Ctrl+Alt+L to bring out the Levels dialogue.



If you play around with the arrows you'll understand easily what the Levels adjuster is there for. Basically, the histogram in the dialogue tells you how much information is present from which percentage of black. At least, that's what I think.

There are ways of using it more professionally, too. See the black eyedropper below the Options-button? If you click it and then click the blackest area of the document, you tell Photoshop what you want him to consider as 100% black. PS will adjust the levels of the document thereafter.

You'll aquire a feel for this useful tool pretty quickly.

Now is the time for adding background textures to the panels. Usage of techniques in this area goes with individual preference, of course. I'm still teaching myself new techniques for making this look right.

Photoshop has a lot of functions you can use to do backgrounds. But for the love of everything that looks nifty: Make sure it doesn't scream Photoshop! A tip in this direction: Use filters only if you know exactly what you're doing.

I use patterns for most of my backgrounds. If I don't use patterns, I use screen tones, which are images I paste on top. Patterns are applied using the paint bucket tool. Here's my procedure for usage of patterns for texturing:

1. Usage of the magic wand tool to select surfaces: Some say the wand tool is an evil for digital art. I don't necessarily agree. The wand is perfect for the webcartoonist who already spend too much time on webcartoonism.

Now I choose the wand and select the surfaces I'd like to fill with a pattern. See below for the properties I assign to it.



2. Notice how the Wand refuses to select cleanly around the edges. This problem is solved by Expanding the selected area as follows: Select -> Modify -> Expand... You'll see this little box.



Number of pixels depends on the size of your work-in-progress. Try to make the selection line fall in the middle of the line it's bordering to, taking into consideration the varying thickness of lines, if they vary at all. Play around with it. This is a superb tool; compare it to selecting your outlines manually.

3. Now to add the actual patterns. Patterns are going on separate layers -- if you have the slightest knowledge about Photoshop, you know that much of the magic of this program is based on the possibilities you got with layers.

a. In Photoshop, press F7. The Layers box will appear, or disappear if it were there already.
b. Make sure the background layer with your inks is selected in the Layers box (it probably is, since you should have only one layer at this point).
c. In the bottom row of buttons in the Layers box, select the little paper symbol. A new layer will be created on top of the background layer.



Note: For some reason Photoshop locks the first layer of a new document by default (the Background) so that you can't move it, erase through it or change its blend mode. To get around this you could copy the background by clicking it in the Layers box and dragging it onto the small New Layer symbol, and thereafter delete the misbehaving Background layer. The copy will behave like a regular layer. Personally I like to keep the background, though, I just change its name to 'INKS' (by double-clicking it's current name and typing).

You now have a new layer on top of the Background layer. This is where you want to place your pattern. To make it look nice, though, you must tell the layer to multiply the contents of its underlying layer instead of covering it.

d. To achieve this, select layer in question, click in the drop-down box where it says Normal, and choose Multiply. Later, when you put something on the layer, try switch it back to Normal for a moment. You'll immediately see what effect of the blend mode.

Finally: Now you'd want to take out your actual patterns.

e. The patterns are located in your paint bucket tool. Within the Fill property of the paint bucket tool, select Patterns instead of Foreground, and the pattern drop-down next to it will un-dim. Go ahead, click on it.



f. Select your pattern and fill it into your selection using the bucket. Remember to put it on the layer you just made.
g. Rename the new layer to the name of the pattern. Note: You can find other view modes for the Patterns list seen above in the menu arising from the small arrow. Here you can select a mode which allows you to see the names of the patterns.

Apply more patterns. But keep them on separate layers!

I know how tempting it is, but resist the urge to splat patterns on from the left and right. I read somewhere that you shouldn't use more than three different patterns on one page.

Patterns do not replace colors! They can create textures if they're dim, but noisy patterns should be used with great care! My Muffinville wallpaper pattern is a good example of a noisy pattern.

Note: In Photoshop, when one layer is selected, you can edit this layer only. If you make a selection, you can only edit upon this layer and within this selection only. These are general Photoshop laws which are useful if want to edit patterns.

Note: You can right-click on the thumbnail of whichever layer in the Layers box and select Select Layer Transparency. This makes a selection of the entire contents of that particular layer. Using the marquee (square selection) tool and the Shift and Alt keys, you can modify any selection by adding to and subtracting from it. You can also add and subtract the same way using the wand tool. Play around, that's more educational than reading this.

Note: You can use the gradient tool (this is grouped with the bucket tool) together with selections of patterns to modify them. This is more illustrative to show than to tell:



To do this, select the one gradient type which stretches from solid color to transparency. You select this easily in the properties box. Make sure your current color selection is black or white -- preferrably white, seeing as black-to-transparent gradients upon backgrounds rarely give a good effect. White-to-transparent gradients usually do.

You can also edit the Opacity parameter in the same Properties box. I ususally put it at 20% or 30% and apply the gradient several times.

Another thing you can do: Lay down a uniform pattern as a background, and clear selections in it to create shapes and variation to an otherwise plain (though patterned) background. This has a lot of possibilities, and many cartoonists use these effects.



To do this, clear a selection on an already patterned layer using the marquee tool (you'll find that this tool isn't necessarily squared if you explore the tool group of marquee). To 'clear a selection' means: 'make a selection and hit Delete'.

You can also make vector paths using the Pen tool or any of the other vector tools Photoshop sports. For example in the tool group of the rectangle tool, there's a tool which creates custom shapes, the custom shape tool.

There are two groups of vector tools: The pen group and the rectangle group.

Note: Vector paths look and behave differently from selections. You can create shapes more easily with vector tools, but you can't clear their contents the same way you do a selection's. To use vector paths as selections you must turn them into selections.

This is easy. You create a path with either of the vector tools and close it (just like a selection needs to be closed), then you right-click inside the path and select Make Selection... from the menu which pops up. Feather Radius should be 0 pixels. Hit OK. The path will become a regular selection, which you can treat like a regular selection.

Screen tones are something in Japanese cartoonists use for adding pre-made backgrounds to their traditional paper comics; there's nothing digital about it at all. These champs buy their screen tones at the art supply as transparent patterns, with one sticky side which they glue to the comic itself after cutting and shaping it according to the art.

Some of these tones can be found on the net, scanned. A lot of digital cartoonists use them, by the same principle, with Photoshop.

Surely there's an explanation as to the actual meaning of the word 'tone'. In this article, every image I import onto the strip is a tone.

I've seen that people have different ways of cutting and shaping tones in Photoshop according to their art: Mine is the way of the best possible result with the least possible amount of work.

Here's an overview.



I hit Ctrl+A (select all) on the tone I just opened, then Ctrl+C (copy). In the comic document I hit Ctrl+V (paste). The tone applies itself on top as a new layer. The new layer must be set to Multiply.

Most likely I'll need to up-size the new layer. This I do by transforming it as described before. Sometimes the up-scaling of a tone is so massive that its quality lessens, but usually it's no big problem: Their contents are so simple that it doesn't really show, and they are, after all, backgrounds.

I drag the tone into place with the mouse while pressing Ctrl.

This is what it looks like.



Now I want to erase the parts of the tone which aren't allowed to be there. It can be done by means of the marquee, the eraser, or whichever tool designed to remove stuff.

Keep in mind that you can be artistic with tones. Perhaps in this particular example you couldn't, but by erasing and multiplying with various tools on the tones they can turn out extremely cool. Buy a Japanese manga for reference. They know their way around tones.

Done.



Now that the comic is fixed up with tones and patterns, it's time for the last touch-up: Lettering.

These downloads contain the patterns and tones I use for HELLOMUFFIN!, as well as an extra big pack of both. To download them, right-click the links and click Save Target As...
1 pattern pack for Photoshop, 6.6Mb .PAT
19 ZOOM LINES images, 2.8Mb .RAR
15 scans of DELETER screen tones, 17.9Mb .RAR
A large pack of assorted screen tones and patters, 17.3Mb .RAR


Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V

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